Thread: Draft of 8.4 beta announcement, please edit
All, I've put up a draft of the beta release announcement here: http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/84ReleaseDraft It's also below. Please edit, correct, and improve this announcement draft. The beta release will be sometime soon, but not quite yet. Thanks! ================= PostgreSQL 8.4 Beta Released The first beta of Version 8.4 of the world's most advanced open source database, PostgreSQL, was just released by the PostgreSQL Global Development Group. After fourteen months of development, 8.4 is ready for testing by PostgreSQL users all over the world in order to make it our most stable, secure and high-integrity release ever. As with PostgreSQL 8.3 (released in 2008), version 8.4 includes hundreds of patches and dozens of new features. Among them: * Windowing Functions * Common Table Expressions & Recursive Joins * Default & Variadic parameters for functions * Parallel Restore (backwards-compatible) * Column Permissions * Per-database locale settings * Improved hash indexes * Improved join performance for EXISTS and NOT EXISTS queries * Easier-to-use Warm Standby * Free Space Map auto-tuning * Visibility Map (greatly reduces vacuum overhead for slowly-changing tables) * Version-aware psql (backslash commands work against older servers) * Support SSL certs for authentication * Per-function runtime statistics * Easy editing of functions in psql * New contrib modules: pg_stat_statements, auto_explain, citext, btree_gin Please download and install version 8.4 and test out these new features as soon as you can! You can especially help the PostgreSQL developers by trying new features in combination, and by doing a test port of your production applications to version 8.4. Performance comparisons with 8.3 are also very helpful. Tell us what you find! Release Notes: Source Code: Windows Installers: Other Binaries: Beta Information Page: Bug Report Form: The usual duration of the beta testing period for a new version of PostgreSQL is 6 weeks. However, that time can vary significantly depending on what bugs our testing discovers. The PostgreSQL project does not release until all significant known bugs are fixed. -- Josh Berkus PostgreSQL Experts Inc. www.pgexperts.com
On Thursday 09 April 2009 02:14:44 Josh Berkus wrote: > As with PostgreSQL 8.3 (released in 2008), version 8.4 includes hundreds > of patches and dozens of new features. Among them: I would drop the reference to 8.3 -- it's confusing. > * Parallel Restore (backwards-compatible) I know what you mean, but the casual reader would hope that *most* of PostgreSQL is backward compatible, so this can only serve to confuse. > * Support SSL certs for authentication This is not really new, it's just easier/different/something to use. > Please download and install version 8.4 and test out these new features > as soon as you can! You can especially help the PostgreSQL developers > by trying new features in combination, and by doing a test port of your > production applications to version 8.4. Performance comparisons with > 8.3 are also very helpful. Tell us what you find! If you think it's appropriate, adding a call for translators would be nice.
On 09/04/2009 00:14, Josh Berkus wrote: > The first beta of Version 8.4 of the world's most advanced open source > database, PostgreSQL, was just released by the PostgreSQL Global I would say "...has just been released...." rather than "...was just released...". Ray. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Raymond O'Donnell, Director of Music, Galway Cathedral, Ireland rod@iol.ie Galway Cathedral Recitals: http://www.galwaycathedral.org/recitals ------------------------------------------------------------------
Peter, > If you think it's appropriate, adding a call for translators would be nice. It's appropriate. Can you draft it, please? Also, do you want control of the translators@postgresql.org mailing list? I'm not using it for the press releases anymore. -- Josh Berkus PostgreSQL Experts Inc. www.pgexperts.com
Peter Eisentraut wrote: > On Thursday 09 April 2009 02:14:44 Josh Berkus wrote: >> * Support SSL certs for authentication > > This is not really new, it's just easier/different/something to use. Using SSL certs for authentication is most definitely new in 8.4. //Magnus
On Friday 10 April 2009 00:27:20 Magnus Hagander wrote: > Peter Eisentraut wrote: > > On Thursday 09 April 2009 02:14:44 Josh Berkus wrote: > >> * Support SSL certs for authentication > > > > This is not really new, it's just easier/different/something to use. > > Using SSL certs for authentication is most definitely new in 8.4. Client authentication is new. Server authentication is not.
Peter Eisentraut wrote:
> On Friday 10 April 2009 00:27:20 Magnus Hagander wrote:
> > Peter Eisentraut wrote:
> > > On Thursday 09 April 2009 02:14:44 Josh Berkus wrote:
> > >> * Support SSL certs for authentication
> > >
> > > This is not really new, it's just easier/different/something to use.
> >
> > Using SSL certs for authentication is most definitely new in 8.4.
>
> Client authentication is new. Server authentication is not.
I think this is referring to the 8release note item:
Add <literal>cert</> authentication method to allow user
authentication via <acronym>SSL</> certificates (Magnus)
Previously <acronym>SSL</> certificates could only verify that
the client had access to a certificate, not authenticate a
user.
The details are here:
http://developer.postgresql.org/pgdocs/postgres/auth-methods.html#AUTH-CERT
In summary:
The 'cn' attribute of the certificate will be compared to the
login username, and if they match the login will be allowed.
I have updated the release notes bullet text and draft release
announcement wiki to be:
Support SSL certificates for user authentication
Note the addition of the word "user".
--
Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> http://momjian.us
EnterpriseDB http://enterprisedb.com
+ If your life is a hard drive, Christ can be your backup. +
On Thursday 09 April 2009 21:09:31 Josh Berkus wrote: > Peter, > > > If you think it's appropriate, adding a call for translators would be > > nice. > > It's appropriate. Can you draft it, please? Added to wiki. > Also, do you want control of the translators@postgresql.org mailing > list? I'm not using it for the press releases anymore. We already have a mailing list, so I don't think we need this one right now.